Thursday, May 10, 2012

Hime and Poppy

Hime and Poppy have come to stay for a bit.

These rambunctious pups are about three months old, and come from the Namie area of Fukushima. Actually, we know their owner - a guy who has helped us on numerous occasions to pick up and care for his evacuated neighbors' dogs.

This man, Mr. K, has not evacuated. He is still living in his Namie home with his dogs. And like almost all the dogs in the entire prefecture (at least the rural areas), his dogs run free and are not spayed or neutered.

Predictably, his dogs have gotten pregnant. On multiple occasions. Did you know that a dog's gestation cycle is only about two months? This means it's actually possible to have more than one litter a season. Definitely possible to have more than one litter a year. That's a lot of puppies.

Now as much as I love - love! - puppies, I actually don't want them to ever be born on my watch. But they're so cute! And they are so precious! And precious life! I know, but the thing is, as much as I don't want more puppies to be born, they will always be born. In spades. And many many of them will die, because their owner drowns them in the river, or they are running around and get hit by cars (as some of our rescues' sibs were), or are attacked and killed by other, bigger animals (as some of our rescues' sibs were), or will go to the pound and be gassed to death when they don't find a good family before their adorable, snackable puppy faces mature into adorable, but less desirable, adult doggy faces. As so many are every single day all over the world. SO MANY.

So anyway, though Mr. K had resorted with previous litters to "returning them to nature" (via the river), he agreed to give us this batch, and think about letting us spay his dogs. One small victory.

There are five siblings. Three have been spoken for. Hime is going to a trial family soon. Poppy is available for adoption. She is extremely snackable.